Unable to Close Child Window Inside setTimeout Callback in JavaScript

Question

I'm encountering an issue with closing a child window inside a setTimeout callback in JavaScript. Despite successfully opening the child window using window.open, I am unable to access the newChild variable within the setTimeout callback function.

Here's a simplified version of the code I'm working with:

import { useState } from "react";

const useButton = () => {
  const openChildWindow = () => {
    const newChild = window.open(
      "https://www.google.com/",
      "",
      "toolbar=0,status=0,width=626,height=436"
    );

    setTimeout(() => {
      newChild.close();
    }, 3000);
  };

  return {
    openChildWindow,
  };
};

I'm perplexed as to why the newChild variable is not accessible within the setTimeout callback. Could someone please enlighten me on why this is happening and suggest a solution to fix this issue?

Thank you in advance for your assistance!

Answer 1

Your code works fine the way it is. The problem you are seeing, is that https://www.google.com/ is preventing the window from closing.

Try your code with other urls and see. The two I tested that worked fine are:

1. https://stackoverflow.com/
2. https://www.jigsawplanet.com/